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houses with mould on outside walls any higher than about 2 feet is due to the way the person inside lives, windows closed heating on constantly steam from baths , showers not escaping, wet clothes being dried on radiators, clothes airers inside, typical of rented accommodation mould is rarely seen in private house s like this.

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You (the OP in their last post) appear to be conflating a number of things... kinda weirdly. I'm going to try and disabuse you of any unrealistic hopes you might have...

 

Uncompleted repair works aren't something you sue for... you follow a clearly defined formal process which means actual written letters and follow-ups and a reasonable time allowed, escalation and follow-up again. Only after all these paths have been exhausted might you reach a point where you then could consider withholding rent to offset the cost of repairs you undertake yourself (pay for, I mean)... but you don't sue anyone for repairs that weren't done.

 

The wording of a tenancy agreement isn't something you sue for... you either accept the words and sign it, or you protest and ask for changes and then either sign the updated one or move out if you're not happy with what happens. I don't see how this is pertinent in the grand scheme of things either.

 

An invalid notice isn't something you sue for... if an invalid notice is served then it eventually (through escalating over the various eviction paths where you refuse to leave) gets to Court and the Court throws it out and tells the Landlord to "try again"... whether it's invalid or not isn't relevant. In fact, an invalid notice is in the interests of the Tenant, for obvious reasons. Even the most inept Landlord will get their notice right in the end... but it just slows things down, massively, but it's not something you sue over... and it's not emotional harassment. And the fact is you're leaving anyway... of your own accord, for somewhere better. You've done what all Tenants have the right to do - vote with their feet.

 

Unannounced attendances certainly rob you of your "quiet enjoyment"... but there's no formal requirement to notify a Tenant of just visiting / popping their head in (there might be something in your particular agreement, I mean - I would never do it, but some folk are strange like that) - especially if one party might think it's just "friendly" (I know, know! But no-one knows what goes on inside the heads of others) - and that is something that you would need to follow-up at the time by complaining formally to the Landlord and making it quite clear that you do not give your permission for the Landlord to attend without notice, based on the quiet enjoyment angle. Again, not something you'd sue for - it's not illegal eviction, after all.

 

Mould... could be the property, but could be Tenant lifestyle. Reliably hard to prove anything in this regard. Especially after the fact. How are you able to make hay from this? I don't think that you are. If you wanted to do something about it at the time then you would / should have gotten the right people at the Council (Environmental Health?) involved and they would have gone in to bat for you, on this matter, with the Landlord and, if there was anything that needed to be done, they would've forced the Landlord to do it. All the Landlord has to do is say "I never experienced any mould with other Tenants"... and there's doubt sown. Of course, it could be the property... sure it could... but it then falls under repairs and remedial action again... not something you sue for.

 

The Deposit is your big win. The other stuff is just noise. All that said, if the Solicitor comes back and says you're due £1,000,000 for all these things... 🙂 well, I'd be surprised, but I'm not going to correct them... however, I would be suspicious. You are not a one-trick pony... but, in reality, it might be better to think in that vein?

Edited by Hippogriff

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11 minutes ago, ab6262 said:

houses with mould on outside walls any higher than about 2 feet is due to the way the person inside lives, windows closed heating on constantly steam from baths , showers not escaping, wet clothes being dried on radiators, clothes airers inside, typical of rented accommodation mould is rarely seen in private house s like this.

We've had all windows open every day, in all weathers since the day we moved in. Bathroom doesn't even have a vent, yet we've kept the window open and open it further when we've had to use the shower or bath.

We've got a tumble dryer, the pipe goes outside of the window. We've always hung washing outside in nicer weather, never inside. Even the clothes airer goes outside.

The mould isn't in any other part of the property except the main bedroom. It's well ventilated, has been since we moved in, curtains/blinds opened, so there shouldn't be any reason for it to grow on the walls.

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46 minutes ago, burghley said:

...and a letter/reminder (guaranteed next day, which wasn't successful due to no answer) to arrange a mutual date/time for handover and property inspection before 2nd July, we've heard absolutely nothing in return.

A mistake people often make (Tenant to Landlord and Landlord to Tenant) is sending actual letters via something like Recorded Delivery... the service that requires a signature as proof of delivery. Firstly, this costs you more and gives you a false sense of security / achievement... and it can easily be foiled... if the recipient knows it is coming and they know they don't want it, then they can just refuse to sign for it. All your plans evaporate.

 

Far, far better to just send two copies of the same letter via normal First Class post... get yourself a free proof of postage from the counter... for your purposes a First Class letter is considered "served" two days after the date sent. You have no issues, then, with people being out or refusing to sign for Recorded Delivery letters (this works both ways - if I have to send a Section 21 I will send two copies of the same form... I will even go to two different Post Offices, it's not as onerous as you think, and get my proof of postage - I am then covered).

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26 minutes ago, Hippogriff said:

You (the OP in their last post) appear to be conflating a number of things... kinda weirdly. I'm going to try and disabuse you of any unrealistic hopes you might have...

 

I sent a letter to the landlord in November and December 2020 about the outstanding repair work, alongside the gas safety checks needing doing. I kept receipt of this, and the letter I sent (as with the latest communications about us vacating by 2nd July). Again, this was not acknowledged until near enough end of January. Believe standard is 30 days for this to be resolved, yet only one of the 5/6 matters stated were dealt with with no further update or response to the remaining.
 

The wording of the agreement was raised by said solicitors. We contested the wording of the deposit, but it was never fully clear regarding the term of the tenancy. It looks like it was just pulled off the internet and he only adjusted what he felt was relevant.
 

The council and TRO were informed of the invalid notice, an email and letter were sent to him, again with no response or follow up from him to serve it correctly. The notice caused a large amount of emotional distress. We had been trying to look for a property since February however there was never anything suitable (that didn't have mould which was a deciding factor) or we weren't selected for the other properties we had high interested in. We had to use other methods to secure the property we're now moving into.
 

Both tenancy agreements we were provided with clearly states the Landlord must provide us at least 24 hours notice before arrival, this was a broken clause in my eyes. Again, this caused distress and he did not respond when I questioned twice why he hadn't given us notification. Even when I refused entry and said an agreed date and time is needed, they still walked into the property which they had no right to.

I'm sure in previous comments, I had contacted the Council and Environmental Health, they said they could not do anything because it was not 'severe enough' to be dealt with, despite my persistence and sending them the letter from my Doctor confirming the symptoms I've experienced, and still do.
With regards to us 'causing' the mould, I replied to ab6262's comment. The council sent the same information about ventilation, I told them all this, as well as the Landlord in an email from January that we've always kept the windows open. The only occasions we've kept them closed (or on the very first latch-lock, still allowing for ventilation) have been when we've worked later days, or being away from the property for the night.

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4 minutes ago, Hippogriff said:

A mistake people often make (Tenant to Landlord and Landlord to Tenant) is sending actual letters via something like Recorded Delivery... the service that requires a signature as proof of delivery. Firstly, this costs you more and gives you a false sense of security / achievement... and it can easily be foiled... if the recipient knows it is coming and they know they don't want it, then they can just refuse to sign for it. All your plans evaporate.

 

Far, far better to just send two copies of the same letter via normal First Class post... get yourself a free proof of postage from the counter... for your purposes a First Class letter is considered "served" two days after the date sent. You have no issues, then, with people being out or refusing to sign for Recorded Delivery letters (this works both ways - if I have to send a Section 21 I will send two copies of the same form... I will even go to two different Post Offices, it's not as onerous as you think, and get my proof of postage - I am then covered).

Our original letter was sent 1st Class with proof of postage on 2nd June, the same day that the Landlord offered us to stay in the property for a longer period and we declined in the email, but took it upon ourselves to send our notice to vacate. Heard nothing back.

The solicitor and Citizens Advice advised us to send it next day guarantee, so I've followed their advice. I've taken screenshots of the tracking record. It should have been delivered on Saturday, however with no answer, I selected it to be re-delivered for an attempt tomorrow. If they don't sign for it, I'm sure this would flag up on the tracking and the Judge would be interested to know why they refused it.

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Agreements might say something like "a minimum of 24 hours to enter the property to conduct repairs or perform inspections"... but at least some aspect of what you told us about was just your Landlord knocking on the door to present you with something. Walking in is, indeed, a different thing, I agree.

 

If the Council team wouldn't take it further because the issues weren't "severe enough" then that actually works against you, not for you. You need to focus here. There is an obvious path to success and adding more and more things to the mix complicates matters and doesn't add weight to anything.

 

But all this is why I feel you're getting distracted away from the simple, biggest win - the Deposit.

 

If I was you I would move out as quickly and simply as you possibly can... then take a breather and go in to bat on the Deposit only. Forget the other stuff. There's no clear path to success with any of it. And, even if there was something out there about a 30 day timeline for a repair (there isn't) it doesn't come with a monetary win for you. In the same way for the GSC... the penalty to the Landlord could be an unlimited fine and even imprisonment... but that's a penalty for them but not a win for you. A Court will look at the Deposit protection in isolation - was it protected, or not? And impose a penalty based on that. They won't increase the penalty if your Landlord wasn't a nice chap. What I'm saying is deal with this in a black and white way... don't pin too many hopes on emotional distress (this isn't America).

 

The Deposit is good in this regard... the penalty comes to you and is can be lucrative. Good luck.

Just now, burghley said:

If they don't sign for it, I'm sure this would flag up on the tracking and the Judge would be interested to know why they refused it.

Are you sure? It might just say "undelivered, returned to sender".  Also, they also could just always be out, right? You need something to land on their doormat and be considered delivered / served. You are assuming too much when you don't need to go to all this trouble. The advice you received in this regard is poor. Don't worry too much... plenty of people do it, thinking they are being clever... they don't understand the postal service... a Solicitor should though. Assuming a Court would be interested in why anyone refused to sign a letter is also a stretch too far. Too many grey areas here.... too complicated. This is an open-and-shut case but you are trying to boil the ocean. I urge you to re-think and focus on the big win.

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We have since relocated into the new property, and feel so much more relaxed.
The key handover was an absolute mess. He turned up nearly an hour later than agreed, an estate agent turned up not long after we did. On top of that, he was extremely rude; which his words were noted.

We've also had the response back from the Solicitors with the information; now we're in the position to attempt negotiation before court action.
The solicitors have given us a 25% + VAT success fee, taking it to 45% if I am correct?
We're unsure whether we should pay the solicitors to try negotiate a settlement outside of court on our behalf for a fee (and they also get the 45% of the compensation 'win') or if we should do the letter ourselves, now we've got the information and law in writing directly from them which we can highlight and refer back to.

We do believe that it will likely be put in front of a Judge; we're pretty confident as we've got enough evidence to support our case.
So our question would be, should we pay the solicitors and let them take that 45% chunk of the money if they settle negotiations pre-court, or should we write the letter ourselves to attempt settlement of compensation before pursuing court action?

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1 hour ago, burghley said:

... The solicitors have given us a 25% + VAT success fee, taking it to 45% if I am correct? ...

The 20% VAT will only be charged on the 25% fee. So, if my maths are correct, you'll pay a total of 30%.

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1 hour ago, burghley said:

We have since relocated into the new property, and feel so much more relaxed.
The key handover was an absolute mess. He turned up nearly an hour later than agreed, an estate agent turned up not long after we did. On top of that, he was extremely rude; which his words were noted.

We've also had the response back from the Solicitors with the information; now we're in the position to attempt negotiation before court action.
The solicitors have given us a 25% + VAT success fee, taking it to 45% if I am correct?
We're unsure whether we should pay the solicitors to try negotiate a settlement outside of court on our behalf for a fee (and they also get the 45% of the compensation 'win') or if we should do the letter ourselves, now we've got the information and law in writing directly from them which we can highlight and refer back to.

We do believe that it will likely be put in front of a Judge; we're pretty confident as we've got enough evidence to support our case.
So our question would be, should we pay the solicitors and let them take that 45% chunk of the money if they settle negotiations pre-court, or should we write the letter ourselves to attempt settlement of compensation before pursuing court action?

landlord must be well happy

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13 minutes ago, ab6262 said:

landlord must be well happy

They've only got themselves to blame for neglecting their responsibilities.

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On 15/07/2021 at 18:30, burghley said:

We're unsure whether we should pay the solicitors to try negotiate a settlement outside of court on our behalf for a fee (and they also get the 45% of the compensation 'win') or if we should do the letter ourselves...

It's not clear what your approach is. If it is simply the Deposit angle, as I've suggested, then you can easily do that yourself as it is an open-and-shut case. If you're trying to bundle all of your angst and complaints together in one kind of Super Case, then it might be [much] more complicated.

Edited by Hippogriff

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